Move Could Endanger Thousands of Texans, Economic Prosperity in the State
Democracy Forward President & CEO Skye Perryman: “This maneuver is a misuse of the courts. If Attorney General Paxton will not defend Texans, we will.”
Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, Democracy Forward and a coalition of partners filed an emergency motion to intervene to stop the dismantling of the Texas Dream Act. The 24-year-old bipartisan law guarantees access to in-state tuition and financial aid for persons (including non-citizens, permanent residents, and visa holders) who graduate from and complete at least three years in Texas high schools.
On June 4, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the state of Texas to block the Texas Dream Act. Just hours after the DOJ filed the lawsuit — and without time for impacted individuals to express their concerns with the action — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton entered into a consent judgment with the federal government. Now, leaked audio indicates that the Trump-Vance administration colluded with the state to deprive communities of proper process.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), the Austin Community College District’s Board of Trustees (ACC), and college graduate student Oscar Silva.
Read the filing here.
See Coverage Below:
NBC News: DOJ coordinated with Texas AG to kill Texas Dream Act, Trump official says
A top Justice Department official boasted at a private Republican gathering that the Trump administration was able to kill a Texas law that gave undocumented immigrants in-state tuition “in six hours” by coordinating with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to a recording obtained by NBC News.
The groups Democracy Forward, the ACLU Foundation of Texas and the National Immigration Law Center filed a motion Tuesday on behalf of La Unión del Pueblo Entero, a union founded by César Chávez. They argued that the sequence of events “compels one conclusion: the United States and the Texas Attorney General colluded to predetermine the outcome of the case.”
The motion added: “The founders did not design our adversarial system for shadowboxing between co-parties. The system demands opposition, argument, and deliberation — not consent decrees masquerading as litigation.”
Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, criticized Paxton for not defending the bipartisan Texas Dream Act, which the Legislature passed and Gov. Rick Perry signed more than two decades ago. She noted that the Legislature had declined to repeal the law.
“Instead of defending the law of Texas … Attorney General Paxton colluded with the Trump-Vance administration to try to eliminate the law through the courts,” Perryman said in a statement. “This maneuver is a misuse of the courts. If Attorney General Paxton will not defend Texans, we will. We are committed to ensuring that this cynical move is opposed, to defending the Texas Dream Act, and to supporting the courage of our clients.”
Dallas Morning News: A Texas college, UNT student seek to join lawsuit over end of Texas Dream Act
A community college and various advocacy groups want Texas’ in-state tuition for undocumented students reinstated, according to a motion filed late Tuesday from the parties as they seek to join a federal lawsuit over the Dream Act.
The Austin Community College District joined University of North Texas student Oscar Silva and La Unión del Pueblo Entero, an advocacy group for the low-income community in the Rio Grande Valley, in asking a federal judge to intervene in the case.
“If Attorney General [Ken] Paxton will not defend Texans, we will,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, one of the nonprofit legal organizations filing Tuesday’s motion. “We are committed to ensuring that this cynical move is opposed, to defending the Texas Dream Act, and to supporting the courage of our clients.”
Attorneys from the Texas Civil Rights Project, Democracy Forward, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, National Immigration Law Center and the Dallas-based firm of Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann filed the Tuesday motion.
Meidas Touch Legal AF: Trump BLINDSIDED as Group UNLEASHES Legal FIRESTORM
PERRYMAN: Even the Texas legislature recognized that this was a law that was important and long-standing traditional law in Texas… You essentially have the Trump administration and the Texas Attorney General using the courts to create law that the legislature and the people of Texas have rejected, without any type of case or controversy.”
– # # # –
Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.